The Hailstone Queen
by roisaber
Summary: What might have happened if, right when she was on the edge, Queen Elsa had been given one last, little push...?


"Oh, but I…"

Anna took one last, small breath and let it out. It was too late. The shard of ice, too small to be seen by the naked eye, had finally accomplished its bitter work. A simple accident turned fatal and turned a girl in the flower of her youth into a beautiful but unmoving doll.

"Princess Anna!"

Olaf finally forced his way through the door and into the freezing room. He immediately got to work igniting and stoking the fire, but it was too late. Anna's lips were thin and blue, and no breath rose and fell beneath the folds of her dress. Olaf's heart sank to the bottom of his snowy torso. The shock white of Anna's hair was the indisputable sign that she was beyond the help of either magic or medicine.

In the dungeon, Elsa let out a sudden howl of pain and fury. Somehow, through occult link that connects everyone with those they love, Elsa realized that the worst had happened. Immediately, the room around her started freezing over. Tendrils of flowering ice threaded their way through the walls of the cell. Olaf heard her scream and recognized his creator. He scurried through the empty halls of Arendelle's palace, searching for her location. Outside, the bells of the royal cathedral started tolling to mourn their fallen princess.

The walls to Elsa's cell cracked open just as Olaf arrived to try to free her. He stared, stunned, at the transformation of the woman before him. She was no longer clad in blue and sequins. Instead, she was wearing a dress of flowing, billowing darkness, the color of a gravid sky just before a profound blizzard. Olaf shivered.

"Milady… Queen Elsa…" he finally stammered.

Eyes the color of the polar sky bored into him.

Olaf swallowed and went on. "Queen Elsa, Princess Anna is … gone."

"I know."

"My Queen, it was an accident, no one is going to blame you for –"

"You're wrong, Olaf." Elsa drew her stormy grey cloak more tightly around herself. "I blame me."

Without another word, Elsa strode towards the stairs, and up into the castle proper. Olaf followed behind her, trying to keep up with her long pace and rapid stride.

"Queen Elsa? Queen Elsa, where are you going? What are you going to do?"

Instead of answering, she led them both into the royal throne room. Her voice echoed through the empty chamber, and as the sound bounced and careened, it seemed like each shadow hid another furious Queen.

"Who is still loyal?" she demanded in an imperious tone.

Olaf looked left and right, but he was the only other person in the room. The smoldering look in Elsa's eyes was hotter than any fire, and he hesitated before speaking.

"I'm still loyal," Olaf answered quietly.

She glanced at him, practically burning a hole through his button eyes, and then looked away and spoke again.

"I demand a second time – speak now, if you are still loyal."

This time there was no answer. Olaf nervously threaded his stick fingers together, trying to look anywhere but his obtenebrating queen. Elsa gave it a full minute this time before speaking again.

"I ask a third and final time – who in this entire kingdom is still loyal?"

There was no answer except the mournful tolling of the church bell and the raucous cries of grief from the numerous people milling around outside the castle, struck dumb by the new tragedies piled on top of the unending winter. Queen Elsa's eyes narrowed to slits as she turned to regard Olaf as coldly and calculatingly as a robot.

"So, it's just you, then. Apart from you, this entire Kingdom is in rebellion. Olaf, go and bring me the _former_ Captain of the Guard. He must be tried for treason."

"But, milady Queen," Olaf groaned, his voice twisting with emotion.

"Do it!"

So, Olaf made his way through the halls until he finally found the Captain in the scullery, where he was drinking vodka straight out of the bottle.

"Uh, Mr. Captain General Christian, sir," Olaf said, "Her Majesty requires your immediate audience in the Throne Room."

Christian sneered and took another swig from the bottle.

"Her Majesty is _dead_," the officer retorted. "Saw her body myself, the poor thing."

"Not Princess Anna, sir… I mean, Queen Elsa."

"The Queen is back...? Here to answer for her devilry, is she?"

Olaf shifted nervously. "Sir, it was an accident, there's no way that –"

"Look outside man! Er, Snow-man! Our land is covered in ice! This can only be the work of the devil, and no doubt he's working through that evil witch calling herself our queen. I won't stand for it."

Captain Christian took another swig for good measure, and then purposefully stalked towards the throne room, but not without first drawing his sword. Olaf hurried behind and tried to defend Elsa's character.

"Sir, she's just a little confused, and don't forget her sister just died; please, Captain General Sir, don't do anything rash…"

Captain Christian burst into the room and pointed the tip of his sword directly at the Queen, who was languidly sulking in her father's throne.

"Witch!" he shouted, emboldened by drink and righteous indignation. "Release Arendelle from this winter _immediately_ and submit yourself to justice."

Queen Elsa smiled. It wasn't a very nice smile.

"No. This winter will last until I've rooted out every _hint_ of disloyalty or treason from amongst my subjects. And that means starting with you, Captain. Will you not submit to my authority?"

Captain Christian's eyes darted left and then right as he looked for a way out of his dilemma. But permitting a witch, in league with the devil, to claim authority over the entire kingdom couldn't be allowed. Besides, if he could manage to kill her, perhaps the accursed winter that was killing crops and freezing out commerce could be brought to an end. With a sharp cry, he positioned his sword and charged the throne. What could one unarmed woman do?

Olaf closed his eyes as there was a loud thump and a sudden spray of blood. He didn't dare to open them but he couldn't stop himself, and he looked down to see the Captain's decapitated head staring up at him with an undignified look of surprise. Olaf yelped and kicked it away before his conscious mind kicked in.

"Queen Elsa!" the snow creature cried. "You _killed _him!"

Elsa nodded once, and a few of her blonde locks fell out from underneath her dark hood and haloed her face in a tangled maelstrom.

"Yes. That is the long-standing punishment for treason in this kingdom. Now, bring me the Duke of Weselton. Perhaps he will show himself as being possessed of a little more sense than our late Captain of the Guard."

Olaf gulped. "Please, Queen Elsa, whatever it is you're planning, please stop…"

"Go!"

Her voice hit Olaf like a javelin and he turned and ran out of the room. Queen Elsa took stock of the situation in the ensuing silence. She glanced down, and saw that Captain Christian's torso continued to drain blood all over the floor of the throne room. She was surprised to discover that all she felt was disinterest. Was _this_ what her father would have done? Well, it hardly mattered now. He was as dead as the corpse at her feet. Of course. It was all so simple. After all of these years, how could she have failed to understand it? The key to controlling her power had been in her grasp this entire time. The secret to taking it, and possessing it, and using it was _hate_. Hate was the only emotion strong enough to channel and guide her outrageous cryogenic power. Such childish emotions as happiness, or love, or piety were simply not powerful enough to harness the wild magic.

It took Olaf the better part of an hour to find, herd, and corral the Duke of Weselton into an audience before Queen Elsa. As soon as the man entered the throne room he noticed the corpse, now frozen into a mummy. The Duke yelped with shock and fell back into his two bodyguards, which Elsa had to stifle a giggle with her hand.

"You… witch!" the Duke shouted before he could stop himself.

To Olaf's surprise, Queen Elsa's answer did not sound angry.

"Witch? Well, a witch I may be. I am responsible for the death of my own sister and I brought the killing winter to this land. But, at long last, I have accepted my role as Queen Elsa, royal sovereign of Arendelle and the last living member of my family, and I have no intention of running away any more."

"What is it you plan, my Queen?" the Duke stammered.

Queen Elsa considered this for a minute before answering. The world unconsciously held its breath.

"We must have trials, and those disloyal to me shall be put to death. Let us build warships so that we might create an empire with strength unknown before in history! I demand monuments to my beauty – statues of gold, silver, and alabaster!" Her eyes darted up and down, taking the Duke in. "I will need an heir. Perhaps a marriage of convenience might…"

The Duke grinned as he guessed at her meaning. Only yesterday he'd calculated that his losses to the unnatural winter soared into the hundreds of thousands of ducats. But my, how quickly the tables could turn! If he was reading the new, wise, imperious Queen correctly, he might go from the petty Duke of a rump state to Arendelle's King… He couldn't help but cackle with laughter.

"My Queen, I think you shall become the greatest leader Arendelle has ever seen…"

In another room, Olaf stared at a long, wickedly curved knife made of some unfamiliar black metal. What would become of their Queen, now? What would become of their entire kingdom….?

[EDITOR:] This short little vignette is about good, evil, and the tipping points that separate them. I thought Elsa was about as damn near a villain as you could possibly get without going over, so I wanted to see what would happen if I gave her a little extra push over the edge. Of course, she's a very sympathetic character in the movie, but is she quite so sympathetic in this? I mean she almost killed her sister, and brought undying winter and the attendant starvation and poverty through her inability to handle her emotions and powers. I thought she was just one push away from becoming a typical Disney villain along the likes of Ursula or Maleficent.


End file.
